MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
GO BOWLING 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 12, 2017
TEAM CHEVY TAKES FOUR OF TOP 12 QUALIFYING SPOTS AT KANSAS
KANSAS CITY, KS (May 12, 2017) – Kyle Larson paved the way for Team Chevy in qualifying for tomorrow night’s Go Bowling 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Kansas Speedway with a ninth place effort in the No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS. Larson ran a speed of 187.950 mph in the final round of knockout qualifying on the 1.5-mile track.
Chase Elliott was 10th quick in his No. 24 NAPA Chevy SS, Austin Dillon was 11th in the No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet SS, and Larson’s teammate, Jamie McMurray, qualified 12th in his No. 1 McDonald’s $1 Any Size Soft Drink Chevy SS.
Eleven cars failed inspection and were unable to qualify. Among those were Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, Kasey Kahne No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Mountain Dew Chevy SS. Johnson will start the race 29th, Kahne will start 31st, and Earnhardt Jr. will start 33rd.
To round out the top 5: Ryan Blaney (Ford) won the pole, Joey Logano (Ford) qualified 2nd, Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota) was 3rd, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (Ford) was 4th, and Kyle Busch (Toyota) qualified 5th.
The Go Bowling 400 is scheduled to begin on Saturday, May 13 at 7:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FoxSports1, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
QUALIFYING QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 9th
“It was good there in qualifying. A little bit mad at myself, I overdrove (Turns) 1 and 2 quite a bit there the final round and went slower Upset about that, but to do what we did in a back-up car, getting our back-up car out there in time to make some race runs and a qualifying run in practice was pretty important. Happy with the team about that and starting top 10, we can win from there.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 10th
“I thought it (the No. 24 Chevrolet SS) was pretty decent in race trim. We waited too long to go (in qualifying) and put ourselves in a box.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 11th
“It’s (the No. 3 Chevy) has been pretty good in race trim runs. It was good to get to the third round in qualifying. I think we will have a good race come Sunday.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S $1 ANY SIZE SOFT DRINK CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 12th
IT WAS SO DARTY AND EDGY. HOW WAS YOUR CAR OVERALL?
“Yeah, our McDonald’s Chevy was; I got really loose on my last run. We were tight in the first two runs, so I might have over-emphasized on that, how free I needed to be. And I was driving in a little bit too hard and it’s a fine line of when you overdrive a car, the balance is tighter. And so I kind of committed to back in the corner up there and then we freed the car up. I got just really loose into Turn 1. And it doesn’t look like it on TV, but when you get loose on entry, you fight for about 18 seconds all the way around the corner and you just hope you don’t wreck off of Turn 2. But it was a really good day for us again. I’m happy with our car. We didn’t get trueness about our practice but I was happy with the speed that we had. So we’ll get ready for tomorrow.”
WE’RE SEEING AND HEARING SO MANY THINGS ABOUT HOW LOOSE THESE CARS ARE. IS IT A LOT DIFFERENT FROM LAST YEAR WITH THIS TIRE AND THIS PACKAGE TOGETHER?
“I can’t answer that. I don’t remember a tremendous amount about last year because we run one race here in the daytime and one at night. The thing that I remember about this track is that when we go to the 1.5-miles, you kind of chase the gray, we call it, in the corner. And that’s where the grip is. And for some reason, at this track, you can chase the gray until like the last eight feet, and then it just never really gets up by the wall. It gets really slick. But this track is so fast that you’re already kind of on the edge. And when you’re going that fast and you’re on the edge, it’s a handful. But it’s a lot of fun to drive. It is what it is, right?”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Did not qualify; did not pass inspection
WHAT IS YOUR STANCE ON NOT GETTING A CHANCE TO GO OUT AND QUALIFY?
“A lot of cars didn’t get a chance to go out and a lot of cars had trouble. So, I don’t know what lies in all of that, but I’m not the best at qualifying anyway, so this takes all the pressure off of me (laughs) and my job at what I do behind the wheel. And I love passing race cars. I was really happy with our car. We actually had some short run speed and some q-speed today, so I’m disappointed we didn’t get a chance to go out and take my Lowe’s car for a rip, but I love passing cars and there’s a lot of them on this race track. So, we’ll be fine.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW DEW-S-A CHEVROLET SS – Did not pass technical inspection in order to have the opportunity to make a qualifying attempt
DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE A STRONG ENOUGH CAR TO BE ABLE TO MAKE IT UP THROUGH THE FIELD?
“I think we can. We had a pretty good car in practice, had good speed and it’s a pretty long race. I think it will take us some time, but we can certainly make our way up through there and get a great finish. The car has great speed. The guys are certainly disappointed about not being able to get through tech because we felt like we should have been able to pass and we actually ran the car through right after practice and everything was good. I don’t know why it failed, but I’m sure that is the way everybody feels that didn’t get through it’s like they don’t understand what is going on, but it definitely would have been nice to start a little closer to the front and make it a little bit easier on us, but we will have to do our best when the race starts to try to be aggressive and get as many as we can on the early restarts.”